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Judging a book by its cover has turned out to be a necessity in life. We've all perused book shops and been seduced by a particularly intriguing cover--perhaps we have even been convinced to buy a book because of its cover. And, truly, there is no shame in that. It takes skill and artistry to craft a successful book cover, and that should be acknowledged.

The post Five questions for Oxford World’s Classics cover designer Alex Walker appeared first on OUPblog.

My latest: Book of Lies, published by Orchard Books 24 March!

I'm taking a break from blogging about writing this time, and moving on to something that can strike hope, fear, joy and despair into the heart of all authors... sometimes at the same time. Yes, you guessed it: book covers. 

Thy started her design career at Warner Music UK. The three years on sleeve design gave her a unique insight into the visual world of teens and young adults; the move from music to books was an obvious transition. She joined Orchard Books as senior fiction designer at an exciting time – Orchard were building their middle-grade, teen and YA lists, having acquired incredible talent like Ally Carter, Teri Terry and Jonathan Meres . 
At the beginning of 2015 Thy began her role as Art Director for middle-grade to YA fiction, working across the Orion and Orchard list. It was an unique opportunity to work on two distinctly different imprints, and to work with amazing debut and prizewinning talent including Annabel Pitcher, Dawn Kurtagich and Leo Hunt.

Below are a handful of book cover related sites to check out. There is so much out there, independent designers, design agencies, illustrators etc…so this is just a starting point: 

http://abcoverd.co.uk/

http://booketing.tumblr.com/tagged/design

http://bookcoverarchive.com

http://www.casualoptimist.com/blog/2015/12/14/52-ya-covers-for-2015/

http://mendelsund.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.itsnicethat.com/

And also follow publishers' instagram/pinterest boards. A lot of them are set-up by the designers and they're a little more inspirational than the actual websites which are set-up by the corporate bods as a business tool rather than celebrating the design side of publishing. 

And finally, let her/him know to expect to work VERY hard, you need a good portfolio to get into a Design degree. Design is challenging work and not just about making something look pretty. Fantastic design is almost always about a creative concept/approach, followed by great execution.

...thanks to Thy Bui, the very amazing cover designer who has done all my Orchard Books covers. I kept looking at the cover for Book of Lies while I was editing it, and thinking, I have to make this good enough to live up to this cover.

Thanks to Candy Gourlay for the photo

From left: Kathryn, Candy, Jo, Teri (me!), and Addy. Missing are Nick and Maureen. I'd say photo by Candy, as it is in her photos, yet - strangely - she is in the photo...

Summary: This blog post covers a book project that I worked on from the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2105. I was hired to create a cover illustration and a number of black and white interior illustrations for the book The Hole Story of Kirby the Sneak and Arlo the True.

via Studio Bowes Art Blog at http://ift.tt/1h8AfKg

Headline news can be depressing. Which is why it makes me happy to find news stories like this one: This Teenager Discovered a New Planet on his Third Day of Work. Seriously. At 15, this kid shows up for day three of his “work experience” project, they’ve assigned him the task of wading through all […]

Last year when Wish You Weren’t came out, I was happy with the cover and hopeful that it represented the story well. I still love the cover, but I also started to realize that the static image implied a “quiet” type of story. If you’ve read Wish You Weren’t, you know that’s not the case. […]

Here's a little something I heard at Goodreads this week:

The striking cover of The FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper uses a 1932 photograph of Loretta Young taken by Edward Steichen.

This is an incredible cover, IMHO, reflecting the era of the book (WWII, which is close to the '30s) and the character of the protagonist. Sophie is not the smartest, the bravest, the most charming of the FitzOsbornes. She is merely the one who wrote down everything that happened to the other members of the family.

Michelle Cooper refers to the photo and cover at her blog.

I'm guessing that this cover was created by the art department of Cooper's American publisher, Knopf. If I'm right, then I think it's a powerful example of what a traditional publisher can do for an author. Finding that particular photograph and getting the rights to use it is amazing.  

Anyone who knows me (and a fair few who don't as well) will know that my first YA novel Read Me Like A Book comes out this year. I've been shouting about this for a little while now, and have been super-excited about it for lots of reasons, one of them being the fact that I originally wrote this book fifteen years ago, so it's been a long time in the making.

But the same people might not know about the other book that's coming out this year and which in many ways I am JUST as excited about. This book, Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls, is the latest in my series about a girl who accidentally found out in a school swimming lesson that when she goes in water, she becomes a mermaid.

Emily and I have had lots of adventures together. She has a tendency to get herself into scary, exciting  adventures. [WARNING: Spoilers coming...] Emily has rescued her father from a prison out at sea; she's been nearly squeezed to death by a giant Kraken; she's explored mysterious castles, discovered banished sirens in underwater caves and very nearly been turned to ice by an evil man with too much magic at his disposal.

In August, Emily has her sixth adventure. I can't tell you too much about it yet, as it's still a closely-guarded secret. But what I can tell you is that, in typical Emily style, what starts off as an innocent Geography field trip turns into an adventure involving life and death decisions, a spooky ship and a trip to possibly the most magical place she's ever visited.

For me, one of the most exciting things about this book is that for the first time ever, it's coming out on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time. My UK and US publishers are working together to make this happen, and TODAY, between us, right here, right now, I am very excited to be using the wonderful ABBA blog (thanks ABBA!) to reveal the cover!

So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, children and mer-kids, I give you, Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls - the cover. I think it might be my favourite Emily Windsnap cover ever (by the wonderful artist Sarah Gibb). Hope you think it's as beautiful as I do! :) :) :)

Last week at the book festival was so much fun. The venue was gorgeous – one of the best libraries I’ve ever visited – and the organizers were so thoughtful and generous. It was definitely my favorite festival so far. Plus, I got to meet some awesome authors who’ve written some great books. Thanks to […]

Hope you liked my post on my first day at the London Book Fair 2014. If you haven’t read it, then click First Day at the London Book Fair 2014 to read all about it.

Marketing Your Book

Day Two began with a workshop that had about 8 people sat round a table with a moderator. The topic of the workshop was selling and marketing your book internationally. While the workshop didn’t address the international aspect of marketing your book, there was still a lot of good stuff to take home.

Some of the words of wisdom shared included making sure your book cover sizzles. Don’t check your book sales every day, instead use that time to find bloggers who can promote your book. Everyone at the table was encouraged to share what was working for them.

With regard to social media, I learned we have to tweet about hot topics that are in the social consciousness. He gave the example about football and how you can win new followers by talking about a recent game. To this end, if you follow me on @davidchuka you’ll see me begin to share more about my football team and the challenges of parenting.

The moderator said that Twitter works but you just have to be committed to tweeting every day. At this juncture, I feel it’s necessary to interject that our primary focus as writers is to write so if you’ve not fulfilled your main calling, then don’t sweat the small stuff i.e. social media.

To improve your brand name across social media, make sure you’re using the same username/tag across your profiles. I think you’ll agree that I have a consistent brand name across my profiles apart from Pinterest.

Blog – http://www.davidchuka.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Author.David.Chuka

Twitter – @davidchuka

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKbSJqQe5FQaJHvj-n5R4Gw

Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/boldtrends/

We were encouraged to try paid PR as they can get you into newspapers and also help with press releases. Make sure to haggle on price if you want to go this route as there are always deals to be struck. Ideally before the deadline for advert submissions as they have last minute deals. I’ve never used this method before and would be interested to know if you’ve had any success with it.

Cross promoting helps so try to get to know other authors in your genre. I have to say that I have personally found Facebook groups and Twitter plus GoodReads to be a great place to find fellow authors in my niche. A great man once said that iron sharpens iron and when it comes into getting into an alliance of like-minded authors, the power that we can give each other is huge.

After the workshop, I went to another workshop that I have to admit was pretty boring. Not because of the content but more the delivery of the content. The subject had to do with legal matters. I’m glad I took the business card of the moderator as it’s something I know I’ll definitely need help with in the future.

Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing in the same Bed

For the afternoon session, I went to possibly my best seminar of the day titled ‘Eating the Cake Too: The New Breed of Hybrid Authors have the Best of Both Worlds.’ This session was moderated by Diego Marano who is the head of Kobo in the UK and the special guest was Hugh Howey.

Hugh stressed that writing comes first and should reign supreme above everything else. He talked about how when he first began, his idea of success would be to sell his books to 5000 people over the course of his lifetime. Hugh was asked how he managed to balance all his responsibilities in addition to writing. While he wasn’t ungrateful for all the success that has come his way, I got the distinct impression he missed the old days when his life was purely centred on writing. He made a statement to the effect that we should write as much as we can now and hope our 10th book is the breakaway success before other commitments took us away from writing.

He shared how he believed we’re going back to how stories used to be told which involved a direct engagement between the storyteller and his audience who could give him instant feedback on what part of his story was working and which wasn’t. He gave the analogy of people in the music world who played live and used the audience feedback to gauge where they needed an improvement on their performance. With social media, we can begin to engage once again directly with our audience and involve them in the storytelling.

This reminded me of how the father of a student at a Primary school I did a reading at reached out to me on Twitter and said how his daughter liked my books and reading. I replied back and said it was a pleasure to read to her and her school friends. In light of Hugh’s advice, I should have taken this a step further and asked him if I could send him a copy of my next book or asked him which character his daughter liked the best. I believe the keyword here is Engagement.

Below is a short video I shot from the second row with Hugh talking about a deal he recently struck.

Book Marketing Tips from 7-Figure Indy Warriors

The final seminar which I attended was chaired by Indy trailblazers Bella Andre and Barbara Freethy. They were both once upon a time traditionally published but switched to Self-Publishing a few years ago. Bella recently signed a 7-figure print only deal with Harlequin MIRA.

Bella kicked it off by talking about branding. She showed us a slide of all her book covers and said being that she came from a traditionally published background where the author didn’t have a lot of input in the marketing of their books, she wanted to get it right with her covers when she switched. She said she wasn’t hung up on people knowing the title of her books but wanted to build the Bella Andre brand and that’s why they’re always so BIG on her covers.

A great brand should be instantly recognisable and consistent. She advised that we need to fulfil the promise we make to the reader with our book cover. So the images and title should be a reflection on what’s on the inside of the book. She said something she had noticed with a lot of fiction authors is that we only think about the title but the sub title is equally as important.

Think about the holes in the market. What holes/gaps are there in your market that you can exploit? She gave the example of writing under the pseudonym ‘Lucy Kevin’ to capture a segment of the contemporary romance market she felt was being served since the Bridget Jones books.

Readers love knowing that they have more books to look forward to so give it to them and make sure the story in your series is open-ended. People discover you with each new book so aim to write more books in your series. She personally aims to release a book every 2-4 months.

You can maximise the income from your published books by doing one of the following

-       Converting them to audiobooks

-       Having print books

-       Film and TV

-       Selling/licensing the foreign rights

-       Translating them into foreign language

With regard to book translations, she advised to make sure that your translator has experience in translating books and you need to get a proof-reader to check what they’ve done. Your book could live or die on the strength of your translator. The major languages she said we should target are German, Portuguese (with the Brazilian market in mind), Spanish and Italian. You can convert your published books to audio by using the Amazon service acx.com which will not only upload it to Amazon but other retail channels as well.

Barbara drew our attention to the fact that we could draw attention to our latest published books by having a Facebook party. You can also boost your posts on Facebook. She said something you could do is along with the creation of your Facebook page is to create a Facebook group. This is so fans of your books have a place to congregate and discuss your books. This way, the onus isn’t on you to keep the conversation going.

She mentioned something about the fact that she only had about two thousand plus fans on her Facebook page but had a friend who had more than twenty thousand but wasn’t selling much. Her conclusion from this is you can’t equate the success of an author to the amount of fans they had on Facebook.

Something she said that caught my attention and I’ve never tried is that you can update your status on GoodReads the way you could leave a post on Facebook. Use Ereadernews.com to advertise your book as you only pay for clicks. This is another channel I will be exploring. I’ve used them for free days but not for paid promos.

Another thing she said was to always think about keywords and have them in your description and author profile as this is a way people find you on Amazon and the other retail platforms.

Have a 5 year plan. I think this is very important as we sometimes tend to get discouraged if we don’t see sales or just a few sales when we click into our KDP account. Speaking of KDP accounts, she advised us not to check it too often as it could either make you depressed or over-excited.

Have your name big on the cover. The perception is that if your name is big on the cover then you must be BIG. I have to say this was another aha moment and looking through Bella and Barbara’s Amazon author page and viewing all their book titles, I could see they really were practising what they preach. You might not be big at the moment but you have to Fake it, till you BECOME it!

We all need to think like publishers and play with price, covers, description etc. This reminds me of a one on one talk I had with Stephanie Bond on Day One and she said she brought it to the attention of a friend that one of her books wasn’t doing so well in the UK market. They went through a couple of things and her friend pointed out that she began the description to that book with the phrase ‘Welcome back to Lexington, Kentucky.’ They both agreed that Lexington might not be a place familiar to an international audience. As soon as she changed this, an hour later, she began seeing sales on this book. Amazing! This just goes to show that if you’re experiencing mediocre sales on a book you know should be doing better, then something can be done to boost sales.

If there’s one thing that all the Indy superstar writers were in consensus about and which Barbara said again, it was that we should all keep writing. Content is King. Bella said how at the start of each week she had to remind herself that it’s all about the book. Write more than one book. Spend more time writing than promoting.

Network with other authors and cross promote each other’s work. I’m all for this and if you need my help, simply shoot me an email via my Contact Us page.

Get to know retailers – how they work, their platforms, latest trends etc.

Hire professionals to do your cover, edit, proofread, write your description etc. write what you love and think BIG!

There was a big round of applause from the audience at the end of this seminar.

I’d really love to know your thoughts, comments, questions etc. regarding my two days at the London Book Fair. It really was a life changing experience and I hope to see you at London Book Fair 2015 which will be held at The Olympia from April 14 -16^th. Hope to see you there!

Last week I wrote about hybrid authors, authors who publish both traditionally and as self-publishers. Among other things, self-publishing means being responsible for your own covers, something I found difficult with Saving the Planet & Stuff. I knew what kind of feel I wanted in the illustration, but I had trouble hunting around on-line for illustrators who projected what I was looking for. I also realized that there was a difference between an illustration and a book design. I found book design mystifying. Fortunately, I found someone within our family's circle who was able to take care of both the illustration and the design. (Someone who appears to have taken down his website.)

In the March/April issue of the SCBWI Bulletin, author Chris Eboch has an article Cover Design in which she discusses for self-published authors the very issues I was dealing with. She describes pulling together a couple of other authors to help study recent fantasy covers in order to pinpoint the elements she wanted for her book, The Genie's Gift. In her case, she found both an illustrator, Marlo Garnsworthy, and a designer, Alan Erickson. And Chris explains how design differs from illustration. Design involves "choosing and placing text elements," which includes fonts. Fonts are important in terms of their appearance and their placement. And as I learned, some of them are copyrighted. You can't use just any font.

Chris points out that self-publishing can be expensive, something I think many inexperienced writers don't realize or consider. Editing and covers are the two big expenses. They're the two elements of a book that show big time, if they're not well done. Chris says to expect to spend several hundred dollars if you need to hire an artist for an illustration. I've seen the price range of $600 to $2500 in a couple of different places. And then, remember, that that might not include design.

So, writers, once you get the book written, you have a whole new task ahead of you.

As a child, I was completely captivated by the John Sayles film The Secret of Roan Inish. It was somber, moody, atmospheric, mysterious, moving, charming, and oh-so-very IRISH. It was beautiful in both its mythic fable-like story, as well as its muted, lustrous cinematography. Essentially everything I loved in a story then and even more so now. As an adult I discovered the book upon which it is based, the Scotland-set The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry. The story concerns a young girl, Fiona McConville, who returns from the city to live with her grandparents on the coast of Scotland. All of her family had been living on the nearby small rocky island of Ron Mor for generations until they all evacuated four years prior. On that day, Fiona's baby brother Jamie was tragically swept out to sea in his little cradle boat, never to be seen again. But Fiona believes her brother may still be on Ron Mor, and begins to suspect he's been protected by the seals that inhabit the island.

Originally published in 1950s, it has been out of print for a long time, apart from the straggling copies of the 1993 movie-tie in book, which is what I have. But this version of the book has always bothered me. It's the exact same text as the original Ron Mor, but just its title on the cover has been changed to Roan Inish. The original book also featured lovely black and white line illustrations by the author herself. For such a magical story, my lackluster printed copy simply won't do.

Sometimes paperback covers can be for the better and sometimes they can be for the worse. Here are some  recent cover changes I've seen:

First up, Code Name Verity, a book that is near and dear to my heart.

While I was at ALA, I heard rumors of a horrible Anne of Green Gables covers that was making Anne fans angry all over the internet. And then I found it:

I've got more hardcover to paperback changes! What do you think of these?

I love looking at covers! And I think we all judge books by their covers to some extent. Here are some recent hardcover to paperback changes:

Paperback:

I'm covering for Karen King, who should have been writing this post. Instead, she's getting married. That seems like a much more important thing to do. Congratulations Karen!

So this is a cover version of a blog post. To make sure I've got everything covered, I'm going to talk about covers.

Book covers.

It's a little-known fact, but every now and then people ask me to design a book cover for them. Here is the most recent one: